Yesterday while at work, I witnessed a disturbing yet fascinating aspect of
crow biology that I had not seen before--a crow attacking (and most likely
killing) a starling.

I first noticed an odd bird call from near my car. Looking to see what it
was, I realized it was a starling in distress. A crow was repeatedly
nipping the back of the poor starling's neck, and would even pick the bird
up by the neck, fly up a few feet, and drop it back to earth. Either the
starling was already injured when the crow attacked it, or was so dazed
that it couldn't escape, as it never once tried to fly away. I watched the
crow drop and nip the bird about five or six times before I had to go back
inside, so I missed the outcome, but it seems probable that the crow, well,
murdered (get it, crow murder!) the helpless starling. A grim reminder
that birds can and will do things you don't really expect.

Christopher Clark
Sumner, WA
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